Bounty Hunter (2010)

Updated on April 4, 2010

And you thought your rivalry with your ex-lover was intense?

Imagine if you were a bounty hunter, and your job was to catch everyday people, who happen to skip parole or their court dates. Now let's also pretend for a moment that the next person your assigned to catch...happens to be your ex-lover. Someone, who you may have bitter feelings for as they broke your heart........or maybe you might still have feelings for them. Whatever the case maybe, it seems Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) finds himself in the unique opportunity of getting assigned to hunt down his ex-wife, Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston), for his next assignment. At first, Milo couldn't have asked for a better gig, as he literally relishes in making his ex's life a living h*** as he hates her guts. Therefore, he has no problems trying to catch her and throw her in jail. However, what he fails to realize is that his ex-wife is in far more trouble than he ever could have expected.

As it turns out, Nicole is a news reporter who misses her parole hearing, so she can get a lead on a new story. Now, I won't go into what she was on parole for as it's kind of a stupid reason. One that I think most readers are better off not knowing. To make matters even worse, it turns out Milo has a bit of a huge gambling debt to pay off, since his divorce with Nicole. One that causes his bookey to send out her hired thugs to get him. Luckily for them, the two goons happen to be morons and end up either getting beat up, or accidentally kidnapping the wrong guy. Sadly, the shady drug dealer, who tries to kill Nicole before
she can exploit his actions isn't so incompetent. Which leads the two ex-lovers on a cross country trip until they can figure this all out.

Which leads to a lot of awkward yet opportunistic moments where the two ex lovers who love showing just how utterly they hate each other, turns out to be really a sign that they're still madly in love with each other. Unfortunately, neither of them care to admit it.......at least at first. After all, who wouldn't assume when a girl stuns a guy, with a stun gun, that it's really a sign saying she loves him? Or when a guy locks up a girl in a trunk, who wouldn't believe that's his way of showing he loves her? A bit strange and psychotic to some degree, but love can do strange things to people. At least, that's what this film leads you to believe. The story had a great premise to work with, but it falls tragically short on execution.

For one, the main plot of the story makes little to no sense, and comes off as nothing more than an after thought, as the main story serves primarily as a cheap excuse to get Milo and Nicole to rekindle their love for each other. Secondly, the romance felt rushed and in some scenes, often forced. As it seems, the romance between Milo and Nicole felt like it was happening because that's what was expected, and lacked any kind of authenticity.

Even some of the characters were annoying like Stewart (Jason Sudeikis), who often stalks Nicole relentlessly throughout the film. As it seems she made out with him sometime after she broke up with Milo, so it seems Stewart is now "head over heels" in love with her. So much that Milo ends up bumping into the guy when he breaks into her house to catch her; only to find out Stewart broke in just to spy on her like he always allegedly does. Which strikes me as odd as one would think she would've gotten a restraining order on this guy by now or at least reported him for sexual harassment, since she works with him. No, it seems Nicole lacks a lot of common sense, as she just blows off Stewart's affection and stalking methods as nothing and ignores him. However, what can you expect from a woman that got herself on probation for accidentally hitting something as big as a police horse? Oops, I guess I did end up mentioning why she was on parole after all.

To be fair, the film does have it's moments. As the playful banter between Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston's characters were quite amusing. Generating a few cheap laughs here and there about how we all feel about our ex-lovers (or most of us). Sadly, that playful banter gets lost in a mediocre cliched ridden script that offers a story line that's vague at best.

Overall, "Bounty Hunter" may seem like a great date movie when you read about it's premise, but it's really not. If anything, it's another lame and rather sad attempt by Jennifer Aniston to try to establish herself as a legitimate movie actress. "Bounty Hunter" is by far one of the lamest date movies, I've ever seen. Sure, it's good for a few laughs, but the plot leaves too much to be desired.

Comments 2 comments

It seems to me that romantic comdies are ALL the same anymore. Someone reaching for the unattainable, on a journey of self discovery, or trying to elimanate an obsticale...all while struggling with the opposite sex.

So as far as I am concerned, Steven, you hit the nail on the head with this one. You did really good reviewing this film and pointing out it's pointlessness! lol

Stevennix2001 6 years ago Author

@ann nonymous

Yeah, I do agree with you about romantic comedies in general. However, to be fair, there are a few diamonds in the rough that are genuinely funny without insulting the intellect of the viewer like "Knocked Up", "She's Out Of My League", "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town", and "Can't Buy Me Love." Unfortunately like diamonds, they're very hard to come by when it comes to the romantic comedy genre. As the vast majority of them are pieces of garbage.